Chapter Three #3
Properly rebuked, and just a little fearful that her brother would do as he’d threatened, Mattie picked up Winchester, who wasn’t exactly a small dog, and rushed off.
She was joined by Agnes, who had been watching the entire situation unfold.
She didn’t move to help tame the dog, mostly because she’d gotten a naughty peek at a man’s bare arse and she’d liked it.
She was hoping the dog would tear more of his breeches.
Unfortunately, she did not get her wish.
Gar sat on the ground, watching the two young women and the dog run back toward the keep.
Truly, he wasn’t angry as Maksim was. He figured it was some measure of Godly punishment for smelling like something a dog might want to fight.
It was his fault, he was certain. As he sat there, watching the lovely vision in yellow silk run away, a hand suddenly appeared in his face.
“Come on, lad,” Maksim said. “Let me help you up.”
Gar looked up at Maksim, shaking his head in disbelief. “Did that dog truly just tear my breeches and expose my arse to the woman I am supposed to marry?” he asked.
Maksim was trying very hard not to laugh. “He did.”
“I hate that dog.”
“He hates you.”
“I am going to kill it the next time I see it.”
Maksim shook his head. “You’d better not,” he said. “Mattie loves that dog. It would not be a good way to start off your marriage.”
Gar sighed heavily. Without further ado, he accepted Maksim’s hand and stood up, trying to keep his backside covered as he did so.
He could see the soldiers standing around, still grinning at what had just happened, and he also saw that his father and escort had chosen that moment to come through the gatehouse.
He could see their curious expressions, their wondering why he’d just got up off the ground, with torn breeches no less. Rolling his eyes, Gar turned away.
“You’d better take me somewhere to bathe and recover my dignity,” he said. “And I’ll need new breeches.”
Maksim was still biting his lip to keep from smiling. “I can find you some,” he said. “But well done, you.”
“Well done what?”
“You took that humiliation like a man.”
“Is that what your sister thinks?” Gar said with sarcasm. “Did I impress her somehow?”
Maksim shrugged. “She’s probably grateful that you simply didn’t kill her dog,” he said. “I cannot understand what got into Winchester. He does not usually attack like that.”
“Clearly, there is something about me that the dog took offense with.”
Maksim was in agreement. “The smell.”
“The only answer.”
Maksim let his grin break through. They continued on to the knights’ quarters, which was an outbuilding lodged against the exterior curtain wall, built from the same gray granite that comprised most of Hensingham.
The ceiling was low, however, and they had to duck in when they arrived, but there was a manservant immediately upon entering.
The small, older man took care of the knights of Hensingham, Maksim included, and when Maksim explained what he wanted, the servant went running for the necessary items.
“In here,” Maksim said, directing Gar into a chamber that was small and dark, crowded with a bed frame. “You can use this chamber for your stay. I’ll have someone bring your things.”
Gar let go of the piece of torn breeches he’d been holding up to cover what he could of his backside. “You have my thanks,” he said. “If you see my father, please tell him where you have taken me.”
“I will,” Maksim said. “Now, I go on the hunt for something for you to wear. Is there anything in your saddlebags I can retrieve?”
Gar didn’t want to tell him the truth, that he’d brought nothing more to wear because he wanted his new bride to see just what a slovenly beast she was going to marry.
“Not really,” he said. “As I said, we received word from your father and simply came. I did not have time to pack much. But my father might have something for me.”
Maksim nodded, his gaze lingering on Gar for a moment. “The battles on the border,” he said quietly. “Were they terrible?”
Gar nodded without hesitation. “Bad enough,” he said. “The Scots are angry and that is never pleasant.”
“What happened?”
“A clan murdered a pair of English knights and the liege of those knights wanted revenge,” he said. “At least, that was the catalyst. But the truth is that any skirmish on the Scots border is never a simple thing. Anything can set it off.”
Maksim nodded. “So I’ve heard,” he said. “But we do not get any action where we are. I think the last danger we faced was during my grandfather’s time. Hensingham is peaceful, here in the wilds of Cumbria.”
Gar peered from a small window, into the bailey beyond. “The castle seems to be in good condition.”
“You intend to take my sister into the brittle borders?”
“If she is my wife, she will live with me and that is where I live.”
Maksim sighed faintly. “Matilda has never been around that kind of thing.”
“Then she will have to become accustomed to it.”
But Maksim shook his head. “You do not understand,” he said, looking the man up and down. “The last time you saw one another, she was a child and you were barely a man. Things change. People grow up.”
“What do you mean?”
Maksim was looking at the man before him who looked like he lived in the mud.
“I mean that she has grown into a fine lady, Gar,” he said.
“She is not a warrior’s daughter. She did not grow up around battle.
She grew up learning to paint and to sing and to dance.
She can speak four languages. She is intelligent and cultured.
To take her to a warring castle would be like taking a white dove and shoving it in with the chickens.
It will be as alien to her as living on the moon. ”
Gar looked at him, then. “If you have any objections to this marriage, then I wish you would tell your father,” he said. “I have tried my best to break this betrothal, but my father and grandfather are set. They will not break it. Mayhap your father can.”
Maksim’s brow furrowed. “You do not want to marry my sister?”
“I do not think I am a good prospect for anyone to marry.”
At least he had avoided insulting Mattie, but Maksim wasn’t stupid. He could see that Gar didn’t seem to have any interest in the marriage. With that realization, he grunted unhappily and rubbed at his forehead.
“She has been looking forward to this for ten years,” he said. “You must not tell her that you do not wish to marry her, Gar. It will break her heart and if you break her heart, I will break you. Do you understand me?”
Gar looked at him, seeing the protective brother, and his hard stance softened a little.
“I have sisters also,” he said. “I understand your instincts when it comes to your sister. I can assure you that I will not deliberately hurt her feelings. But I am a terrible match for her, Maksim. I spend my days fighting Scots and my nights seeing to the defense of my castle. We live on alert every moment of every day. I do not have feasts or dances and I have no need for a wife who speaks four languages and is adept at painting. Do you not see? This is not the marriage she was hoping for.”
“Nor were you,” Maksim finished quietly.
Gar sighed heavily. “It has nothing to do with your sister,” he said. “She is just a woman I do not know. I have no feelings toward her one way or the other. But I have a life, and a vocation, and a wife does not fit into either right now.”
Maksim understood, but still, given that the subject in question was his sister, he struggled not to be offended by Gar’s attitude. He looked at Gar again, from head to toe, seeing the filth and the dirt and the disheveled appearance. He gestured toward him.
“Is this truly your natural state?” he said. “Or was this part of some plan to offend my sister so terribly that she would beg my father to break the betrothal? Because no man is this filthy, Gar. Not even a warlord on the Scots border.”
Gar looked down at himself. “I do not have a wife telling me what to wear or to clean myself,” he said. “I am what you see, Maksim. I am sorry if that is disappointing.”
Maksim simply shook his head as if disheartened by the entire situation. “As I said before,” he said, “she has been looking forward to this for ten years. If you are to discourage her, do not be cruel about it. She does not deserve it.”
The manservant chose that moment to return, followed by men bearing a big copper tub and still more men bearing buckets of steaming water.
As Maksim quit the knights’ quarters, Gar finished stripping off his clothing and the tub was filled up.
He climbed into the bath, hissing because the water was so hot, and the manservant pulled out a cake of white soap that smelled of pine needles along with a horsehair brush and went to work.
And Gar let him.